How to Learn To Farm
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- Опубліковано 5 жов 2024
- In this video, Josh Sattin and I sit down to discuss the two very different ways we learned to farm and some of the options out there when you're just starting out or for continued education. Always curious to hear everyone else's thoughts or journey! Comment below.
This video tackles questions like: how to learn to farm, how to become a farmer, how to become a market gardener, should you do an apprenticeship, and are the online courses worth it?
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Jesse if you want to get the business side of farming across to people and they aren't watching/listening to your videos/podcasts on the subject, how about injecting a little into every video/podcast - like if you're looking at how carrots are growing, talk about how you market and cost out carrots, etc :)
Haha, indeed, I do TRY to do that a little bit.
8a, black clay, 2nd year in.
You learn my doing little by little. Experimenting, observing, and lots of hard work. Not giving up, adapting to your environment.
Growing vegetables is pretty straight forward but made up from lots of small parts.. to be successful is to see all parts through and learn and improve.
The most interesting thing so far has been seeing how many different natives grow in a fallow grassland after working the land. Seasonally and yearly there has been hundreds of types of weeds growing and so many of them are pretty. One of the hardest parts of farming is pulling out pretty looking weeds :(
Keep up the good work everyone, we need farmers now more than ever!!
We must be neighbors! Same soil and zone.
@@ryanwillett728 central Texas black belt, outside new Braunfels.
Work on multiple farms that are in your area or have a similar growing climate to where you would like to farm. Live in/work in the area you want to farm in before you start your farm so you understand market demand and conditions for the area and what gaps need to be filled. Work on farms that have the types of sales outlets you’d like to have (CSA vs Wholesale vs farmers markets, etc.) Take business classes at your local community college. Read Richard Wiswall’s book thoroughly. Take a soil systems/biology class and read Zimmerman’s books. Go visit other farms any time you travel/go to a conference/go on vacation. Take practical skills classes/workshops like welding or basic woodworking. And never stop learning and evolving after you start your farm.
My first farming experience was at an educational farm, where I worked in the gardens and kitchen, but also got to know tons of different farm animals. After that I did an apprenticeship on a 17 acre / 350 member CSA veg farm. Even though what I do now is different than both of those experiences, I can't imagine running the market garden business I currently run without them. Nothing compares to hands on experience. I think you need at least a decent foundation of hands-on experience to be able to best understand and utilize online / book resources. Have appreciated what both of you have shared over the years. To anyone reading this, If you're young, see if your area has a local chapter of the National Young Farmers Coalition. Our chapter runs monthly farm tours and that's been so valuable to get to know local farmers, how they run their operations, and open up opportunities for collaboration.
Love NYFC--there are some great chapters out there
So true about the marketing. There's no point in growing it, if you can't sell it. I'm always most interested in learning about marketing and the business side of farming. Thank you for posting this and hopefully more people will start educating on this topic. BLESSINGS-Kate
A lot of what you talked about applied to when I was learning how to produce Maple Syrup years ago. Now as I enjoy learning to farm veggies better in zone 3 I enjoy you guys and your vast knowledge.
Justin Pullin boyfriend David Heatley
Luis Luciano and Danielle Pullin
Scott Brown and Misty Oiler
Mike Ellis and Megan Oiler
Kevin story and Michelle Oiler
I just started my farm this spring in South Texas. I'd like to see more about farming in the South, maybe I'll have to start putting out some content. I'm having a pretty tough first year due to a monsoon-like year, a couple of injuries (one farm related, one unrelated to farming), an historic freeze just before planting that wiped out most of my starts, getting Covid right when I should have been buiding my farm. I thought about renaming my farm to Murphy's Law Farm. Despite all the setbacks I was able to just about sell out at every market I went to or every time we advertised online when we were not able to go to a market (I have a full time job too.) I subscribe to both of your channels and appreciate everything I have learned from you as well as others. Keep the content coming and maybe one day we'll cross paths.
Always great seeing the two of you together
I started out gardening and watched UA-cam videos from market gardeners. Bought all the books... Including one I am really looking forward to! I am now in a very limited apprenticeship for a local non-profit farm with a 55 member CSA. I paid $1,200 to get the education and to work what limited hours I could for the full season. The organization I am working for is very good, by that I mean they do good things for poorer communities in urban environments. However I do wish I had more of the business side of things. I don't know if I need a business license or just a permit from my agricultural department. The clinical side of getting started is something I have found confusing and difficult.
Thank you to both of you! Very informative. For me, I learn better hands on. So I’ve learnt a lot from you and have made so many mistakes, but I keep on keeping on!
So grateful for what you guys are doing!! Thanks for all the wisdom and knowledge that you guys share!!! Keep up the amazing work!! God bless!!!
I love so much all your info video, I learn every where like you 2 books and the most on UA-cam in every country aroind the world everybody have her on force and trick fpr gardening
I like Charles Dowding no dig, Eliot Coleman for gardening in winter no heat here in Quebec we built 2 greenhouses in a urban city it works I can have fresh vege until December
I learn a lot of trick with you to be self efficient because I cant sell my vege my garden is to small.
Smart guys 🍅🌶🥒🥬🥦
Can we get Josh back on the channel to have these laid back, candid conversations?
Great content. Thank you
The business aspect is huge and I wish there was more info on it! It’s pretty straight forward for something like carrot or radish that you plant and harvest all at once. But when you get to peppers or maters etc how do you price based on input/labor. Those kinds of lessons are invaluable! Also how to maximize profit /sales in a FM setting. Loved your FM video btw. I always imagined your market as being larger!
Ps. Book is on order. Thanks for the info. Harlowe custom Microgreens.
Jesse, curious where can we obtain a copy of your new book? Cheers!!! Good work guys....
If you’re in the states, go to notillgrowers.com! Anywhere else go through your local bookshop!
Well done guys
Great stuff!
Hey Jesse I wanted to pre order copy of your book today but see it was sold out. (Good for you!) Would you know when it would be available again? Thanks so much! 👍🌱
Oops, sorry it should be working again!
@@notillgrowers 😁
Ordered. Looking forward to it Jesse!
That’s very true I wish I got more of my bosses time to pick his brain and learn more.
Straight before watching, I bet you guys will make the important distinction between learning to farm and learning to grow.
See if I am right :D
❤🙌
Re: Unpaid internships
If its longer than a few weeks, simple reasoning why it should not be a thing:
Either its "can not" or "don't want to" pay a modest salary.
If its "can not", the business is unsustainable and kept afloat by unpaid labour.
Not a business one should want to learn from.
If its "don't want to" then its greed and exploitation, no further comment needed.
Not yet found a third alternative that somehow justifies it.
The third option is pretty simply that some people don't want to grow their farm to the level of sustaining employees but see that their farm has a lot of value and can be a great educational space for people who want to learn. I don't personally think unpaid internships should be a thing anymore as they are largely exploitative, but many of the farms that do/did engage in them see/saw their farms partially as educational centers. For better or worse.
You have to pay a lot to take courses. Free room & board, with a formal class each day, would be worth it for me. Problem is I can't quit my job to do a full season, so would want "Spring, Summer & Fall" sessions, for 1, 2, or 3 weeks. Not being a farmer, I don't know if that would be doable? Maybe the scheduling would be difficult for the Farmer(time wise), but one of the interns could volunteer to do it? You two are Great! I learn a ton from you, just biding my time🤨😊
@@notillgrowers I don't agree with it at all. And if a new farmer is learning how to farm from some farmer who can't even afford to pay for employees if they have that scale- they will just learn how to run an inefficent farm that doesn't make enough profit to pay basic labour expenses. Also, unpaid internships aren't fair to everyone. Not everyone can afford to take 6 months off with no pay and still get by. Many people need income to pay their bills, student loans, childcare, medical etc. The people who I know who can do unpaid internships often don't have to worry about economic burdens or their parents are supporting them.
All great points, Cheyenne, and I’m with you. We need more farms offering reasonably paying jobs. I think the supply (of jobs) is nowhere near meeting the demand right now, but I’m not sure how to fix that. Perhaps having more people point out these flaws in internships will push more farms to hire instead
Sidenote, Josh, you should check out the new video from Veritaseum, as you mentioned you are a visual learner.
Cause there's no such thing, the entire idea is pretty solidly debunked :D